Angry home owners occupy Kazakhstan's presidential party HQ

Home owners left financially crippled by the financial crisis invaded the party offices of Nur Otan, the party of Kazakh President Nazarbayev, on Tuesday evening, promising to remain there until the government agreed to bail them out.

Nursulatn Nazarbayev is certain to win the forthcoming Presidential election on April 3Photo: REUTERS

"We are going to sit in the conference hall of Nur Otan until that moment when all our questions will be solved," Zauresh Battalova, the leader of the group, For Decent Housing, said in a statement on Tuesday night.

"In other words we will sit until April 3 (the date of the coming Presidential poll). "We have food and dinner is being prepared." A spokesman for the group said on Tuesday night that 50 activists were still entrenched in the building, out of more than 130 who had stormed it earlier in the day, in a display of public anger that is almost unheard of in the tightly controlled former Soviet Republic.

The oil-rich country was badly affected by a property bubble in the run-up to the financial crisis, leaving thousands of Kazakhs badly in debt and in danger of losing their homes.

Yesenbek Ukteshbayev, another senior member of the protest group, said their aim was to deliver a petition directly to Mr Nazarbayev.

"Authorities must not only serve the interests of the bank, they should also help individuals," Ukteshbayev told The Associated Press.

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During the protest near the presidential palace earlier in the day, a column of police blocked the group, who then unfurled banners, one of which read: "We need a president that thinks about the people."

A spokesman said that police were camped outside the Nur Otan building, preventing anyone who left from re-entering.

The group has managed to rally protesters in far greater numbers than has a campaign by opposition parties to boycott the forthcoming Presidential election on April 3, which Mr Nazarbayev is certain to win.

The 70-year-old has ruled the country unchallenged since the final years of the Soviet Union.